Our Sweet Life

Thursday, January 15, 2015

I remember learning about Martin Luther King, Jr. as a child. We watched a short video on his life. Someone in the video shouted, "Power to the people!" I remember wondering what that truly meant.

Undeniably the young man that shouted it wanted the African American people to be endowed with the power that comes with freedom. The power that comes from being allowed to be who you are. I remember thinking that Dr. King had that power. His speech, his presence and his education empowered him to move an entire nation. He was truly a great man.

I believe we all are endowed with power, however, when you combine many different people to one purpose, like Dr. King, it has the potential to multiply that power exponentially. So while we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King day this month (on the 19th), let's come together with not only each other, but with God. With our power combined we are unstoppable.

Our Family Motto for the year was chosen by our children from a list of quotes my husband and I put together. I believe giving our family a purpose every year endows us with the power and will to accomplish anything. The motto they chose was perfect.

"As individuals we are strong, together with God we are unstoppable."

~Rosemary M. Wixom

Whatever your resolutions are this year, share them with God, he has a way of making things happen. Review them every day, then have a good talk with Him at the end of the day, let him know your progress, your let downs, your struggles and triumphs. Let Him guide your path and you cannot fail.

Then like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. go out and give a good word of encouragement to someone who is trying, a smile to everyone in passing, and a hand up to someone who has fallen or is failing. Together we can do anything, with love.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Yes, I know, huge surprise. I haven't written in a long time. I am still alive! The kids have not managed to tie me up in the basement somewhere. Here is my topic today.

Potty Training: Necessary? or a Conspiracy?

I am currently potty training my last minion. Madeline is a spirited 2 1/2 year old. She is ready, according to all the parenting advice I have read. She shows all the signs of being old enough to potty train. So here was our day yesterday:

Breakfast:
We wrapped up a package of little girl undies to give her and made a big production of changing her into them. Then we told her not to get her pretty undies dirty with yucky potty. We touted the big girl she has become and proceeded to ask her if she needed to go potty every 10 minutes for the rest of our lives....or so it seemed.

10 AM:

We are now proceeding to sit on the potty every 10 minutes, she hasn't had an accident, a promising development, but she has yet to leak a drop in the potty.

11 AM:

Now I'm starting to panic. Not an accident, not a drop! And I've pumped a TON of juice into this baby! She just sits there smirking at me. I'm beginning to believe that maybe she knows how to use the potty and is just trying to torture me....

12:45:

Nap time! I put her in a diaper for her nap. She promptly lets it all go.....now I know it's a conspiracy.

2:45:

Wakes up from her nap. We try again with the underwear. But now she knows how to pull it on and off. Now we have a problem. Again, I offer her as much milk and juice as her heart desires.

3:15:

Still nothing...

4:00:

Still nothing...not a drop

4:45:

I sneak downstairs to change over the laundry.....Screaming Shawn alerts me to progress. I charge up the stairs to find a puddle in the middle of the kitchen table and a relieved looking baby.....

5:30: I give in and put a diaper on her....admitting defeat for another day....

5:45: She runs up to tell me she's stinky and takes off running down the hall. When I finally grab her I realize it's all down her legs and consequently all over my shirt.

6:00 PM.....I'm holed up in the bathroom changing. Totally convinced I'm going to find some kind of baby communication device in her crib so she can communicate with the mother ship on how her human mother torture experiment is going....

Conclusion:

Though Potty Training may be a necessary evil....or a conspiracy, the jury's still out...I have come to the realization that my 2 year old is smarter than I am. So to all the mom's out there....

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.In a bowl combine the sugar and the flour and xantham gum.In a separate bowl mix eggs baking soda and
sour cream well.In a small saucepan
combine peanut butter, butter and water.Bring to a boil.Stir the mixture
into the flour mixture then add to the sour cream mixture.Pour into and ungreased cookie sheet with
sides, ie a jelly roll pan.Bake 20 min
or until done.Cake is done when a
toothpick comes out clean.Mix the
nucoa, peanut butter and coconut milk together in a sauce pan, bring to a boil
stirring constantly.Add powdered sugar
and mix well off the heat.Let it cook
for a few minutes then add vanilla pour over cake while still warm.Cool and serve.Die in heaven.

GF 5 star chocolate chip cookies

1 ½ cup sugar

1 ½ cup brown sugar

1 cup nucoa

1 cup coconut shortening

4 eggs

1 TBS vanilla

5 cups GF flour

1 ½ tsp salt

1 ½ tsp soda

1 tsp xantham gum

1 pkg chocolate chips

Cream the sugars and butter and shortening with a mixer
until light and fluffy, then beat them some more.Slowly add the eggs, vanilla, salt and baking
soda.Slowly add the flour and xantham
gum.Proceed to eat the cookie dough by
the spoonful.For best results
refrigerate overnight before baking.But
it works right away as well.Bake 375
for 10 min.

Cari’s Amazing pasta/potato salad!

1 cup macaroni noodles , boil and drain, rinse with cold
water.

4 hard boiled eggs

2 potatoes

1 can whole olives drained

1 english cucumber, peel and half, take out seeds slice as
thin as a fork tine.Sprinkle with a
good TBS of kosher salt and let sit in a bowl for a few hours to get the water
out.Drain the water.Lay on a stack of 3 paper towels and gently
squeeze out excess water.

Peel and grate one carrot

Mix with helmans mayonnaise to desired consistency.

Enjoy with your eyes closed for best effect…. Then say yum!

Pizza Dough, not GF

3 cups flour

1 TBS yeast

1 cup warm water

1 TBS olive oil

1 TBS sugar

Mix the sugar and water and yeast and let sit until the
yeast softens.Add the flour and olive
oil, using the dough hook on your mixer let it knead for a few minutes until
elastic.Then let rest for 15 min.oil your hands and your rolling pin and roll
out.Good for breadsticks too!

GF and egg free Chocolate Cake

3 cups GF flour

2/3 cups oil.

2 cups sugar

1 tsp salt

6 tbs cocoa

2 tsp Vanilla

2 TBS vinegar

2 cups water

½ cup applesauce or 2 eggs

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp xantham gum

Mix everything together except the xantham gum.When mixed well mix the xantham gum in.Bake at 3t0 for 25-35 min in a greased pan or
2 9” rounds.

Shawn--looking at a man in the next campground with long brown hair and a beard--"Jesus!"

Marky--his first day of baseball, "Mom, why do I have to run around the bases, it seems dumb if I end up where I started!"

Marky--"I was playing rock, paper, scissors and Shawn cheated!"

Haley and Mark talking on the "Phone" (hands in ears) Haley--Helllo...is this Mark? Marky--No this is Brad....silence..Haley--Brad who?

Marky--"You know, in kindergarten Kashia really liked me....but we seperated in the first grade, she's in another class. Now Megan thinks I'm cute...Meeeeeggannn....ahhhhh she's cute. giggle"-heheheh

Marky after doing me a favor, "Yeah, I know I'm good. I just can't help it!"

Haley to Shawn, "You just don't understand!"

Mark and Haley Playing, Mark: "Haley, I am Harry Potter. (pointing stick at Haley) SILENCIO!" ..Haley just stares at him, Mark :"Good, now you can't talk." He goes on reading.

Mark--drawing a picture--"Look mom, these are fierce landscapers, they hunt birds and deer!" I reply.."Landscapers?" he says, "Yes! You know those people who hunt!"

Mark--"Mom, did you know that this used to be a lake?(salt flats) And if it were still here we'd all be under water? Wierd!"

Shawn--"What's this?" --to just about everything...;)

Haley, "Mom, I want to change my middle name to Ginger." -huh?

Driving down the highway(maybe in the twilight zone), listening to the news on the radio with my kids I started when suddenly it cracked then went silent. A voice came over the radio and said "Erin, Erin are you there?" Mark exclaimed. Mom! The car's talking to you.

Mark explaining to Haley what happens in a cemetery, "You die, then they bury you in a box, then you turn to dust, but you don't mind because your brain is in heaven!"

Marky in a Prayer, "We thank thee for Shawn that he could grown in mommy's tummy we really really like him, and want another."

Haley about the F-16 on display at the Aerospace Museum, 'Check it out mom! These are awesome!' (4 Years old?)

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Some of my Favorite Quotes

The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause. - Mark Twain

I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso

The people who make a difference are not the ones with the credentials, but the ones with the concern. ~Max Lucado

The truth is more important than the facts. - Frank Lloyd Wright

~Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands - and then eat just one of the pieces. ~Judith Viorst

If you ever start feeling like you have the goofiest, craziest, most dysfunctional family in the world, all you have to do is go to a state fair. Because five minutes at the fair, you'll be going, 'you know, we're alright. We are dang near royalty.' - Jeff Foxworthy

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye.--Miss Piggy